Digital images may be shown on a display at various levels of magnification. For example, a digital image may be shown at a reduced resolution relative to the original resolution, such that a viewer of the reduced resolution digital image cannot determine details that are apparent to a viewer of the digital image at the original resolution. To assist a viewer of the reduced resolution digital image that is rendered on a display, a software application may enable the viewer to view a magnified portion of the digital image.
In one approach, a viewer may position a pointer over a digital image shown on a display to cause a magnified view of that digital image to appear in box in a fixed location on the display. This approach is disadvantageous in that the box in the fixed location on the display may cover part of the digital image. Additionally, since the box is in a fixed position on the display, the viewer may find positioning the pointer while watching the magnified view of the digital image to be awkward. Moreover, the pointer may obscure the area of interest on the digital image that the viewer wishes to view at a magnified level, which may impede his or her ability to do so.
Consequently, there is a need in the art to improve the ability to magnify a portion of the display without incurring the disadvantages of the above-described approaches. The approaches described in this section could be pursued, but have not necessarily been previously conceived or been pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.